1. In thine esteemed letter thou hadst inquired which of the
Prophets of God should be regarded as superior to others.
Know thou assuredly that the essence of all the Prophets of
God is one and the same. Their unity is absolute. God, the
Creator, saith: There is no distinction whatsoever among the
Bearers of My Message. They all have but one purpose; their
secret is the same secret. To prefer one in honor to
another, to exalt certain ones above the rest, is in no wise
to be permitted. Every true Prophet hath regarded His
Message as fundamentally the same as the Revelation of every
other Prophet gone before Him. If any man, therefore, should
fail to comprehend this truth, and should consequently
indulge in vain and unseemly language, no one whose sight is
keen and whose understanding is enlightened would ever allow
such idle talk to cause him to waver in his belief.
(Baha'u'llah,
Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 78)
2. The measure
of the revelation of the Prophets of God in this world, however,
must differ. Each and every one of them hath been the Bearer of
a distinct Message, and hath been commissioned to reveal Himself
through specific acts. It is for this reason that they appear to
vary in their greatness. Their Revelation may be likened unto
the light of the moon that sheddeth its radiance upon the earth.
Though every time it appeareth, it revealeth a fresh measure of
its brightness, yet its inherent splendor can never diminish,
nor can its light suffer extinction.
(Baha'u'llah,
Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 78)
3. The Prophets
of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is to foster
the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the
spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided
humanity. To none is given the right to question their words or
disparage their conduct, for they are the only ones who can
claim to have understood the patient and to have correctly
diagnosed its ailments. No man, however acute his perception,
can ever hope to reach the heights which the wisdom and
understanding of the Divine Physician have attained. Little
wonder, then, if the treatment prescribed by the physician in
this day should not be found to be identical with that which he
prescribed before. How could it be otherwise when the ills
affecting the sufferer necessitate at every stage of his
sickness a special remedy? In like manner, every time the
Prophets of God have illumined the world with the resplendent
radiance of the Day Star of Divine knowledge, they have
invariably summoned its peoples to embrace the light of God
through such means as best befitted the exigencies of the age in
which they appeared. They were thus able to scatter the darkness
of ignorance, and to shed upon the world the glory of their own
knowledge. It is towards the inmost essence of these Prophets,
therefore, that the eye of every man of discernment must be
directed, inasmuch as their one and only purpose hath always
been to guide the erring, and give peace to the afflicted....
These are not days of prosperity and triumph. The whole of
mankind is in the grip of manifold ills. Strive, therefore, to
save its life through the wholesome medicine which the almighty
hand of the unerring Physician hath prepared.
(Baha'u'llah,
Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 79)
4. The Purpose
of the one true God, exalted be His glory, in revealing Himself
unto men is to lay bare those gems that lie hidden within the
mine of their true and inmost selves. That the divers communions
of the earth, and the manifold systems of religious belief,
should never be allowed to foster the feelings of animosity
among men, is, in this Day, of the essence of the Faith of God
and His Religion. These principles and laws, these
firmly-established and mighty systems, have proceeded from one
Source, and are the rays of one Light. That they differ one from
another is to be attributed to the varying requirements of the
ages in which they were promulgated.
Gird up the
loins of your endeavor, O people of Baha, that haply the tumult
of religious dissension and strife that agitateth the peoples of
the earth may be stilled, that every trace of it may be
completely obliterated. For the love of God, and them that serve
Him, arise to aid this most sublime and momentous Revelation.
Religious fanaticism and hatred are a world-devouring fire,
whose violence none can quench. The Hand of Divine power can,
alone, deliver mankind from this desolating affliction....
The utterance
of God is a lamp, whose light is these words: Ye are the fruits
of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with
another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and
fellowship. He Who is the Day Star of Truth beareth Me witness!
So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the
whole earth. The one true God, He Who knoweth all things,
Himself testifieth to the truth of these words.
(Baha'u'llah,
Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 287)
5. Religion,
moreover, is not a series of beliefs, a set of customs; religion
is the teachings of the Lord God, teachings which constitute the
very life of humankind, which urge high thoughts upon the mind,
refine the character, and lay the groundwork for man's
everlasting honour.
Note thou:
could these fevers in the world of the mind, these fires of war
and hate, of resentment and malice among the nations, this
aggression of peoples against peoples, which have destroyed the
tranquillity of the whole world ever be made to abate, except
through the living waters of the teachings of God? No, never!
And this is
clear: a power above and beyond the powers of nature must needs
be brought to bear, to change this black darkness into light,
and these hatreds and resentments, grudges and spites, these
endless wrangles and wars, into fellowship and love amongst all
the peoples of the earth. This power is none other than the
breathings of the Holy Spirit and the mighty inflow of the Word
of God.
(Abdu'l-Baha,
Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 52)
6. The
differences among the religions of the world are due to the
varying types of minds. So long as the powers of the mind are
various, it is certain that men's judgements and opinions will
differ one from another. If, however, one single, universal
perceptive power be introduced -- a power encompassing all the
rest -- those differing opinions will merge, and a spiritual
harmony and oneness will become apparent. For example, when the
Christ was made manifest, the minds of the various contemporary
peoples, their views, their emotional attitudes, whether they
were Romans, Greeks, Syrians, Israelites, or others, were at
variance with one another. But once His universal power was
brought to bear, it gradually succeeded, after the lapse of
three hundred years, in gathering together all those divergent
minds under the protection, and within the governance, of one
central Point, all sharing the same spiritual emotions in their
hearts.
(Abdu'l-Baha,
Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 63)
7. And among
the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh is that religion is a mighty
bulwark. If the edifice of religion shakes and totters,
commotion and chaos will ensue and the order of things will be
utterly upset, for in the world of mankind there are two
safeguards that protect man from wrongdoing. One is the law
which punishes the criminal; but the law prevents only the
manifest crime and not the concealed sin; whereas the ideal
safeguard, namely, the religion of God, prevents both the
manifest and the concealed crime, trains man, educates morals,
compels the adoption of virtues and is the all-inclusive power
which guarantees the felicity of the world of mankind. But by
religion is meant that which is ascertained by investigation and
not that which is based on mere imitation, the foundations of
Divine Religions and not human imitations.
(Abdu'l-Baha,
Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 302)
8. O God, Who
art the Author of all Manifestations, the Source of all Sources,
the Fountain-Head of all Revelations, and the Well-Spring of all
Lights! I testify that by Thy Name the heaven of understanding
hath been adorned, and the ocean of utterance hath surged, and
the dispensations of Thy providence have been promulgated unto
the followers of all religions.
I beseech Thee
so to enrich me as to dispense with all save Thee, and be made
independent of any one except Thyself. Rain down, then, upon me
out of the clouds of Thy bounty that which shall profit me in
every world of Thy worlds. Assist me, then, through Thy
strengthening grace, so to serve Thy Cause amidst Thy servants
that I may show forth what will cause me to be remembered as
long as Thine own kingdom endureth and Thy dominion will last.
This is Thy
servant, O my Lord, who with his whole being hath turned unto
the horizon of Thy bounty, and the ocean of Thy grace, and the
heaven of Thy gifts. Do with me then as becometh Thy majesty,
and Thy glory, and Thy bounteousness, and Thy grace.
Thou, in truth,
art the God of strength and power, Who art meet to answer them
that pray Thee. There is no God save Thee, the All-Knowing, the
All-Wise.
(Baha'u'llah,
Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 59)
9. Wherefore, O
my loving friends! Consort with all the peoples, kindreds and
religions of the world with the utmost truthfulness,
uprightness, faithfulness, kindliness, good-will and
friendliness, that all the world of being may be filled with the
holy ecstasy of the grace of Baha, that ignorance, enmity, hate
and rancor may vanish from the world and the darkness of
estrangement amidst the peoples and kindreds of the world may
give way to the Light of Unity. Should other peoples and nations
be unfaithful to you show your fidelity unto them, should they
be unjust toward you show justice towards them, should they keep
aloof from you attract them to yourselves, should they show
their enmity be friendly towards them, should they poison your
lives, sweeten their souls, should they inflict a wound upon
you, be a salve to their sores. Such are the attributes of the
sincere! Such are the attributes of the truthful.
(Abdu'l-Baha,
The Will and Testament, p. 14)
